Dmytro Tymchuk: Terrorists force the locals to join them because they are running out of money

Тerrorists are forcing local men to take up arms, Dmytro Tymchuk, coordinator of the Information Resistance group, tells in a comment for The Ukrainian Week

According to Tymchuk, the activities of the SBU, Ukraine’s Special Service, and counterintelligence have caused disruptions in the delivery of financing for terrorists, therefore they started forcing people to join their ranks.

“When terrorists have financial resources, they recruit fighters from among the locals. Yet, few locals are willing to fight. They are not driven by ideology. But, given the fact that they live in very depressed regions, they can take up arms and work with terrorists for money,” Tymchuk said.

“However, the estimates are from at least a week back. Their numbers decline constantly. Some, especially “Cossacks”, leave for Russia. This is not rotation; part of them realize that they don’t like it here and they want to go back home. Instead, new smaller groups of mercenaries arrive. This makes it difficult to calculate their numbers properly since those territories are under total control of terrorists,” Tymchuk said.

On June 16, National Defence and Security Council Head Andriy Parubiy said that the number of terrorists in the Donbas is 20,000.